Failure to achieve reconciliation the ‘great miss’ of peace process – Tanaiste

Micheal Martin said many communities were as far apart in 2023 as they were in 1998, when the landmark Good Friday Agreement was struck to largely end the violence of the Troubles.

In a keynote address at an Irish government Shared Island event in Dublin, Mr Martin said, while the agreement had secured an enduring peace, opportunities to fulfil the potential of that peace have been "squandered".

He said there had been insufficient focus on tackling sectarianism, pointing to continuing instances of people engaging in offensive chants or posting abuse on social media about other traditions as manifestation of the ongoing divisions.

In a wide-ranging speech at what was the latest in series of dialogue events organised under the Irish government's Shared Island initiative, Mr Martin spoke about the island's complex history and stressed the need for a better understanding of differing cultures.

Among those in the diverse audience at Dublin's Abbey Theatre was Grand Secretary of the Orange Order Rev Mervyn Gibson.

Mr Martin said overcoming the divisions that remain on the island and how to accommodate different national identities remained "one of the great challenges of our time".

"While there has been immense progress, clearly the vision of the Good Friday Agreement for a reconciliation of all communities and traditions has not yet been achieved," he said.

"Perhaps most problematically, politics in Northern Ireland is still largely defined by green and orange and a zero-sum framing of community competition on almost every issue - even though that doesn't reflect the day-to-day reality of life and often doesn't reflect broader definitions of Britishness or Irishness.

"This complicates the achievement of parity of esteem, and the creation of political space in which the people of Northern Ireland have a right to identify and be accepted as British, or Irish or both.

"And, both north and south, there are persistent, often mindless, instances of abuse of others' identity, beliefs, culture, or experience.

"Every day on social media, and marring sports grounds, community halls, concerts and events across this island.

"There is little discussion, and even less consensus, on recognising and responding to the hurt and alienation that some songs, chants or traditions, cause others.

"Moving beyond this, will require broad-based and sustained leadership to effect a positive change.

"To rectify the blindspots that conflict, tension and disdain have created over generations in conceptions of others, and obscuring how much actually binds us all together.

"I am not suggesting that the successful navigation of these issues is easy.

"Or, that accommodation and compromise should fall to one group, or another.

"But it is time to find ways to move our respective cultures and identities fully on from dichotomy and rivalry to symbiosis and respect."

l John Wilson Foster: Dublin’s cash injection plan for NI is equivalent to a Belt and Road Initiative, page 15